Senator Edward Kennedy had a successful three and a half hour operation to remove a brain tumour yesterday, the first step in his treatment for brain cancer, said his doctors.

Two weeks ago, according to the New York Times, doctors diagnosed that the 76-year-old Massachusetts Democrat had a malignant glioma in the upper left part of his brain after suffering a seizure at his family home on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He was initially treated at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Dr Allan Friedman, a surgeon specializing in brain tumours and peripheral nerve surgery, who is based at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, where he operated on the Senator, said in a statement yesterday, 2nd June, that:

“I am pleased to report that Senator Kennedy’s surgery was successful and accomplished our goals.”

Friedman, who is Chief of the Neurosurgery Division of the Department of Surgery, and Co-Director of the Neuro-Oncology Program at Duke’s, said the Senator was awake during the operation, and “should therefore experience no permanent neurological effects from the surgery”.

According to a family spokesman, the Senator told his wife shortly after the operation that he felt like “a million bucks”, reported the Associated Press.

Malignant glioma are often fatal and occur in about 1 in every 9,000 people in the US.

Doctors have not said exactly what type of tumour Kennedy was diagnosed with, there have been media speculations that it is likely to be a glioblastoma multiforme, which is more prevalent in older people.

The surgery is unlikely to have removed all the tumour. The most likely goal will have been to reduce its size or “debulking” as it is known, which is challenging because of the risk of harming important brain tissue that controls vital functions like movement and speech.

A report in the New York Times suggests that Kennedy probably chose to go to Duke’s for his surgery because they had a reputation for aggressively attacking tumours while trying to keep as much of the surrounding brain tissue intact as possible.

Top surgeons in this field use highly sophisticated imaging equipment that shows a 3D picture of the tumour. With the patient under anesthesia, they cut away a piece of the skull just above the tumour, then they wake the patient up, and probe the surrounding tissue to check how it affects the patient’s speech (Kennedy’s tumour was in a crucial area for this function). They then mark the tissue using paper tags.

Over the next few days doctors will keep Kennedy under observation for signs of bleeding and blood clots, and give him drugs to overcome brain swelling and prevent seizures.

In about a week, all being well, Kennedy is expected to transfer to Massachusetts General Hospital to start radiation and chemotherapy treatment.

Radiation treatment is typically five days a week for about a month and uses a 3D method to shoot highly targetted narrow beams into the tumour so as to do as little damage to surrounding brain tissue as possible.

The treatment is not a cure, but is given to extend life.

“I hope that everyone will join us in praying for Senator Kennedy to have an uneventful and robust recovery,” said Friedman.

Just before his surgery, the Senator said in a statement that after his treatment he would be looking forward to going back to the Senate and “doing everything I can to help elect Barack Obama as our next president”, reported the Associated Press.

Source: Duke Health, Associated Press, New York Times.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD